PARIS, April 29 — Huge swathes of tropical rainforest were burned or hacked down for cattle and crops last year, led by destruction in Brazil, researchers said Thursday, warning that climate change itself is making it harder to reverse the losses.
Researchers calculated that the loss of tropical primary forest in 2021 resulted in the release of 2.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to the annual fossil fuel emissions of India. While the latest report showed a slight overall reduction in the rate of primary tropical forest loss in 2021, down 11 per cent on a year earlier, researchers said rates remain unsustainably high.
Researchers warned of a potential “feedback loop” where more blazes cause greater carbon dioxide emissions, which in turn helps drive temperatures higher and increases the fire risk. This year’s data comes after 141 global leaders committed at the COP climate summit in Glasgow last year to “halt and reverse forest loss by 2030”.
“Climate change itself is making it harder to maintain the forest that we still have,” said WRI’s Frances Seymour, adding that this showed the imperative of cutting greenhouse gas pollution. Meanwhile in the western Brazilian Amazon, the report said key states saw more than 25 per cent increases in non-fire loss from 2020 to 2021.